Boparan - comment

Poultry beat our expectations by £5m EBITDA, but it’s the topline that surprises us. Still driven by inflation recovery, it more than compensates for a corresponding cost increase, due to customers shifting from whole chickens to higher-margin cut products.

The working capital outflow was worse than anticipated, converting the £5m EBITDA lead into a £9m OCF lag, which translated into a cash balance of £92m, £10m less than modelled. Aengus will be updating his model in the new year.